Mars has long been the subject of Science Fiction fantasy. As recently as the 1950's, people believed that Mars was inhabited by Martians and that we would visit them one day.- With our modern technology we now know that none of this is true. There are 7 functioning spacecraft currently working on Mars, expanding our knowledge of our second closest neighbor by leaps and bounds.
- Five (5) of the spacecraft are in orbit around Mars and 2 (Curiosity and Opportunity) are on its surface.
- Mars is the 4th planet from the Sun, sitting between Earth and Jupiter.
- Because Mars appears red, like blood, the ancient Romans named Mars after their god of war.
- Iron oxide on Mars' surface gives it a reddish appearance, which can actually be detected with the naked eye and is why Mars is also called the Red planet.
- Mars is a terrestrial planet, like Earth. It is the second smallest planet in the Solar System, larger only than Mercury.
- If the Sun were hollow you could fit roughly 2.6 million planets the size of Mars inside.
- The Earth's gravity is measured as 1 unit of gravity. The gravity on all other planets is taken as a multiple of Earth's.
- Because Mars is smaller and weighs less than Earth it has a smaller force of gravity, only about 38% of the force of Earth's gravity.
- A 100 lb person on Earth would only weigh 38 lbs on Mars.
- A Martian year is 687 Earth days.
- A day on Mars is 24.6 hours long, just a little longer than a day on Earth.
- The distance from the Sun to the Earth is 1 AU and is used to measure distance in our Solar System.
- Mars is, on average of 1.5 AU from the Sun.
- It takes the light from the Sun an average of 12.2 minutes to reach Mars.
- Mars has 2 moons.
- Mars does not have rings.
- Mars rotates in a counterclockwise motion or from West to East, the same as Earth. So if you lived on Mars you would see the Sun rise in the East and set in the West, same as on Earth.
- On Mars the temperature drops dramatically only a few feet above the surface during the daytime so if you were standing on the surface your feet would be warmer than your head!
- Mars has polar ice caps at both the North and South poles that are made mostly of frozen water.
- The shield volcano Mount Olympus (Olympus Mons) is the tallest planetary mountain in our Solar System. It is more than two and a half times the height of Mauna Kea, a Hawaiian volcano and has a footprint the size of Arizona!
- Mars is home to the largest canyon in the Solar System, Valles Marinieris. This canyon stretches 4,000 km across the planet's surface. If it was in the United States is would stretch across the entire country and our own Grand Canyon could fit into one of its side channels.
- In October 2014 Comet Siding Spring will have a near collision with the Red Planet, something astronomers are watching with great anticipation. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, in orbit around Mars, and Curiosity and Opportunity on the ground, are all going to take part in observing this traveler from the Oort cloud.
